Overcoming the scientific divide - Aaron Reedy

When I look at science education, I see a divide. I see a divide between doing science and learning science. And now if you're a kid in that system of education, and you want to do science, you want to do authentic research, you may have to wait a long time for that because the first moment in our system of science education where we universally expect students to do science often doesn't come until graduate school. And this is what sets up the divide. It sets up a divide between teachers and scientists, and it sets up a divide in general between learning science and doing science.

But I think we can overcome this divide if teachers and scientists work together. And I think teachers are uniquely positioned to reach out to scientists and make this happen. In my own classroom, I've had some success with this model. And so I'd like to use my own experiences to kind of illustrate how an individual teacher can reach out to scientists and make more science happen in their classrooms.

I had the opportunity to develop my own professional development program in the summer through an organization called Fund for Teachers. The way they work is they're kind of like venture capitalists for educators. You go to them with an idea and you say, 'Hey, this is going to make me a better teacher. This is going to help my students learn.' And if they like your idea and they're able, they fund it, and they make that idea happen for you.

So, the idea that I pitched to them was an idea that would get me doing more science because that was important to me. But it was also important to me that I do it in such a way that it would capture the imagination of my students. So, the idea that I pitched to them was a thousand-mile expedition on the Mississippi River to gather data on nutrient pollution. And for 27 days that summer, I was immersed in the process of doing science on one of the mightiest rivers on the planet.

When we would come ashore, after paddling six to ten hours a day, we would set up a temporary lab, and we'd conduct water tests. In prepping for this, I quickly realized how poorly my own education had prepared me to do science of this nature and of this scope. So, what I did was I reached out to experts. I just simply looked through journals, and I found who was the leading experts in nutrient pollution in major rivers, and I started firing off emails with questions.

And I was astounded at the responses I got. Scientists responded thoroughly, and they were genuinely interested in helping me do better science. So, I kind of put that information in my back pocket that professional scientists were a resource that I could draw from. When I went back to my classroom in the fall, my students were able to use the same methods that I had learned in the summer on a river in their own backyard, the Chicago River, to do real science.

And I could see this breakdown of the barrier between doing science and learning science, and it was happening in my classroom, and I wanted more of it. So, the next summer, I reached out to scientists again. And I pretty quickly came across an evolutionary ecology lab at Iowa State. And they shared my philosophy that there should be no separation between doing science and learning science.

They worked on turtle reproduction, specifically how climate change affects the evolution of turtle reproductive behavior, and they worked on an island in the Mississippi River. So, I was thrilled again to be out on the river for another summer. But, because they shared my beliefs on education, we were able to bring high school students out there for two weeks at a time and turn them loose on their own authentic research projects on the biology of turtles, snakes, lizards.

And, in that experience, working side by side with people at all different stages of their academic career, we had the high school students working beside undergrads, working beside graduate students, working beside professionals. I left that experience absolutely convinced that this is the right way to teach science, with no separation between doing science and learning science.

I continued to keep up my relationships with these scientists, and I got to the point where I wanted to try something new, something that hadn't been done before. I wanted to bring those kinds of science experiences that we were having with kids out at the river, and I wanted to put those into our classroom. And it was important to me that it wasn't simply a one-off or a one-day special field trip.

I wanted this kind of science to be a part of the everyday science curriculum for an entire school year. So, as we were thinking of this, in planning for how we could make this happen realistically, we reached out to the National Science Foundation, and we applied to a Research Experience for Teachers grant, or the RET.

And now, teachers have to partner with a researcher who is already supported by the NSF to apply for this grant, but I think that just gives you one more great excuse to partner with a scientist. And what we did is we used our NSF funding to travel down to Florida, with the permission of the state, to catch a bunch of lizards, and FedEx them back to my classroom in Chicago where we had set up a functioning, live animal lab.

So, when my students came to school for the first day in September, they immediately began work on a scientific experiment that would answer a very specific question. Our question was, "How do females make choices when they lay eggs? How do they choose a nest site? And what effect does that choice have on their offspring?"

And, by the end of the year, they had generated data and performed science that answered that question. And I was extremely happy when our work was recently published in the January edition of Behavioral Ecology. And, to my knowledge, this is the first time that work conducted as part of a normal high school curriculum resulted in a peer-reviewed paper.

So, I have three pieces of advice for teachers who want to make these connections with scientists and want to blur the line between doing science and learning science. Number 1, look out for those great resources that are out there. Apply for an RET grant, apply for a Fund for Teachers fellowship. I know what a difference those resources can make.

And there's more resources available locally, and you should look for those, too because they can influence the amount that you are able to accomplish. I know that. However, my number 2 piece of advice is don't let a lack of resources stop you from making those connections with professional science. Reach out to a scientist today, no matter what your resource level is.

You can start small. Invite a scientist in for a talk. Set up a Skype chat between a scientist and their lab. Then, maybe you can move up to more large-scale project-based learning. But, whatever you do, make sure that you're forming these partnerships with people who do science for a living.

And my third point acknowledges some of the realities that teachers are facing today. I know that the pressure of high-stakes testing and the climate that creates can make it feel almost a little bit subversive to deviate from the standard curriculum. So, my final piece of advice is be a bit subversive if you have to.

Make sure, though, that you are doing science. And I don't mean be confrontational when I say this because that's not productive. But take the steps you need to, to blur those lines between doing science and learning science for your students.

And I think you'll find that when people see how engaged in learning your students are, and you're getting good results, all your opposition is just going to kind of melt away from that, and you're going to turn people into supporters.

So, I think that this is the right way to teach science where we're teaching the doing of science. And I think it's important to do this also because this is the way that you would have wanted to learn science as a kid.

And, more importantly, I think this is the way that you would want your kids to be taught science. And this is the highest standard that you can hold yourself to as a science educator. So, good luck making those connections, and go do some science! Thank you.